The present invention relates to a method for the production of exhaust pipes for automotive vehicles in which pipe sections of predetermined length are transferred to a bending apparatus to be bent in the latter and wherein preferably the dimensions of the free end of the bent pipe are gauged to see whether they correspond to the desired dimensions.
The present invention is likewise directed to an apparatus for carrying out the above-mentioned method.
Up to now such exhaust pipes have been produced in a non-continuous manner. According to a known method straight tube sections of predetermined length have been cut from a premanufactured elongated pipe strand and these cut tube sections have been usually placed onto a magazine to be taken from there depending on the desired delivery term and transported to one or a plurality of bending apparatus in which the tube sections have been finished bent to exhaust pipes. The exhaust pipes have subsequently thereto been checked as to exactness of their dimensions and then made ready for delivery.
One reason for such a separation in time and space of the severing of the pipe strand into pipe sections from the necessary bending operation is due to the fact that different automotive vehicles require exhaust pipes of different configuration. Therefore, the tube sections are necessarily of different length. This difficulty is then further increased if two differently bent exhaust pipes are to be welded together to a specific exhaust arrangement. Evidently, such a non-uniform work cycle is connected with uneconomical idle times, due to the taking out of the severed pipe sections from the production process, the intermediate placing of the severed pipe sections into magazines and the subsequent transfer of the severed pipe sections from the magazine into the new finishing process. Idle times lead however not only to higher manufacturing costs, but such idle times are in many cases also the cause of non-uniform quality of the finished exhaust pipes.